1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to novel 5-benzyl-2-oxazolidone derivatives and to a process for producing the same.
The present inventors synthesized a wide variety of 5-benzyl-2-oxazolidone derivatives, examined their pharmacological effects and, as a result, found that 5-benzyl-2-oxazolidone derivatives of the following formula (I) possess an extremely excellent muscular relaxing activity: ##STR2## wherein R.sub.1 represents a hydrogen or halogen atom, or a lower alkyl, trihalogenomethyl, phenyl, benzyl, hydroxy, lower alkoxy, phenoxy, benzyloxy, acyloxy, allyloxy, alkylcarbonyl, arylcarbonyl or alkylenedioxy group, and R.sub.2 represents a hydrogen atom, a lower alkyl, lower alkylcarbonyl, lower-dialkylamino-lower alkyl, aryl, aralkyl or arylcarbonyl group.
2 Description of the Prior Art
The treatment of muscle tone diseases stands generally in need of both muscular relaxation and pain elimination. The muscle relaxants have been often used in combination with analgetics in clinical applications. Drugs which possess both analgesic and muscle relaxing properties have been expected to be prepared.
The 5-benzyl-2-oxazolidone derivatives represented by the formula (I) have an analgetic and antiinflammatory action together with a muscle relaxing action and are useful in the treatment of muscle tone and pain or inflammation accompanied by muscle tone. Also, the present compounds may be used in rehabilitation of muscle tone in patients with cerebral apoplexy.